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Rollovers are transactions in currency trading where an open position from one value date or settlement date is rolled over to the next value date or settlement date. Rollovers are unique to the currency markets. Rollovers represent the intersection of interest rate markets and forex markets.

Rollover rates depend on the difference between the interest rates of the two currencies in the pair that you are trading. Only remember that what you are trading is in fact the good old cash. Dont forget currency is money after all.

When you are long on a currency, it is like having a deposit in a bank account. If you are short, its like take a loan from the bank. Just as you would expect to earn interest on a bank deposit and pay interest on a loan, you should expect an interest gain or an interest expense on holding a currency position over time.

The difference between the interest rates between the two currencies is called the interest rate differential. Think of the open currency position as one currency with the positive balance (the currency you are long) and one with negative balance (the currency you are short).

Because your accounts are in two different currencies, the interest rates of two different countries apply. You can find the interest rates of different countries from Wall Street Journal Online, Financial Times online or that matter any good financial website. You should look for the base or benchmark lending rates in each country.

The larger the impact from rollovers, the larger the interest rate differential! The smaller the impact of the rollovers, the narrower the interest rate differential! If you hold an open position past the settlement date or value date, rollovers are usually carried out by your forex broker.

Some online forex brokers apply the rollover rates by applying the rollover credit or debit directly to your margin balance. Other forex brokers apply the rollover rates by adjusting the average rate of your open position. Rollovers are applied to your open currency position by two offsetting trades that result in the same open position.

Rollovers are applied to open position after 5.00 PM EST change in value date. Rollovers are not applied if you dont carry a position over the change in the value date. For day traders, who usually close their positions at the end of each trading day, rollovers do not apply. Rollovers only apply to your over night open position carried over to the next day.

If you are long the currency with the higher interest rate and short the currency with the lower interest rate, rollover can earn you interest income. If you are short the currency with the higher interest rate and long the currency with the low interest rates, rollovers will cost you money.

Trading is not investing. Trading is speculating. Trading can be challenging. Speculating is defined as taking business risk in the hope of profiting from market fluctuations. Successful speculating requires predicting outcomes and analyzing different market situations. It also requires putting your money on the side of the trade on which you think the market is going to go up or down.

Trading can also be the appreciation of the fact that you can be wrong 70 percent of the time and still be a successful trader if you apply the correct techniques for analyzing trades, managing your money and protecting your account.

Opportunity keeps on shifting from one market to another. For example, forex and gold markets are really hot while stocks are down. Gold prices are going up. Those who entered the trend at the right time and ride the trend for maximum profits will make a lot of money in the gold markets. Right now countries, institutional investors, retail investors, in fact almost everyone is running and buying gold as a hedge against turmoil in the global markets.

Many hedge funds had made a lot of money by investing in crude oil futures in the year 2008. Right now oil prices are down due to the reduced demand in the global markets, this situation may continue for some months or some years but suddenly you will find that crude oil futures have become a great investment opportunity again.

As the global economy recovers and demand for oil increases, oil prices will again go up in a few years time. Timing for entering the market and the timing for exiting the market is very important for a successful trade. In trading it is the timing that is of essence.

Investors and traders make the mistake of focusing only on one market. Many end up spending time on only one market. In reality all the markets are interlinked. Futures, options, forex, stocks, commodities, all markets are effected and in return effect other markets. If something happens in one market, you will find the repercussions in the other markets. Successful trading requires mastering a strategy that enables you to trade multiple markets and multiple time frames.

They do testing, development, put on a million indicators, go and trade live. They do everything they can while spending all kinds of time trying to figure out one market and one timeframe. But then what almost happens is that market starts to go sideways or the opportunity shifts to another market.

You really should have the ability to be able to adapt to different market conditions and not waste your time mastering one market. This is critical if you want to make a fortune in trading. You can start with one market but over the years add a few other markets as well. This will diversify your risk as well. For example, there were so many stocks just a few years ago that were incredible to trade that either dont exist anymore or would not trade successfully today. Stocks are no more a good investment. But if you want to trade stocks, you will have to wait for a few more years for the stock market to boom again.

Many gurus will teach you that you really need to learn the ins and outs of one market. They will tell you to focus only on one market and then stick with it. But the problem with that philosophy is that opportunity keeps on shifting from one market to another. Mastering different markets is counterintuitive. Always remember a good trader always follows where the money goes. In other words, follow where the opportunity goes.

Forex markets are open 24 hours a day, five days a week except on weekends. You cannot sit in front of your computer screen all the day watching the markets move. Currency traders use market orders to catch market movements when they are not in front of their screens. A market move is just likely to happen while you are asleep or in the shower as while you are sitting in front of your computer screen.

There are many types of market orders. Proper use of market orders is very critical to your trading success. You should think of the different types of market orders as trades waiting to happen. You are in the market so be as careful as possible while playing with the market orders if you enter an order and the subsequent price action triggers its execution. Trading can be very difficult without these market orders.

Experienced currency traders routinely use orders to implement a trade strategy from entry to exit, capture sharp short term price fluctuations, limit risk in volatile or uncertain markets and preserve trading capital from unwanted loss. Market orders are essential for maintaining trading discipline.

Forex markets can be notoriously volatile and difficult to predict, using market orders can help you capitalize on short term price movements while limiting the impact of any adverse price movements.

If you dont use market orders, you probably dont have a well thought out trading plan. While there is no guarantee that the use of market orders will limit your losses and protect your profits in all market conditions, a disciplined use of market orders will help you quantify the risk that you are taking. It will also give you the peace of mind in trading.

A number of different types of market orders are available to currency traders in forex markets. You should add the market orders to the list of questions you need to ask the broker when you open an account with a forex broker because you should know that not all market orders are available at all online forex brokers.

Take Profit Orders: An old market saying, You cant go broke taking profits. Use the take profit order to lock in profits when you have an open position in the market. Suppose you are short EUR/USD at 1.2354. Your take profit order will be to buy back the position and be place somewhere below 1.2334 making a profit of 20 pips. If you are long GBP/USD at 1.8845, your take profit order will be to sell the position somewhere higher close to 1.8875.

Limit Orders: Dont forget the saying, Buy low and sell high. A limit order is any market order that triggers a trade at more favorable levels than the current market price. If the limit order is to sell then it must be placed somewhere above the current market price. If the limit order is to buy, it must be entered somewhere below the current market price.

Cross currency pairs are as important as the major currency pairs that involve USD on either side of the transaction. The most active traded crosses focus on the three non USD currencies namely EUR, GBP and JPY. These crosses are known as the euro crosses, sterling crosses and the yen crosses. The most actively traded cross currency pairs are: EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY, AUD/JPY, EUR/CHF, and NZD/JPY. Sometimes you will find more action in the cross currency pairs. Crosses enable currency traders to directly target trades to specific individual currencies to take advantage of news or events.

You may notice that the currencies are combined in a seemingly strange way when you look up at the currency pairs. For instance, if sterling-yen (GBP/JPY) is a yen cross, why it is not being also referred to as yen-sterling (JPY/GBP)? The answer is that those quoting conventions were evolved over the years. These conventions have been designed to reflect traditionally strong currencies versus traditionally weak currencies with the strong currency coming first.

The most basic convention that you need to understand is that the first currency in the currency pair is known as the base currency. For example in EUR/JPY, Euro is the base currency. Suppose you buy or sell a currency pair. It is the base currency that you are buying or selling when you buy or sell a currency pair. The second currency in the pair is known as the counter or secondary currency. In the above currency pair, Japanese Yen (JPY) is the counter or secondary currency. So if you buy 100,000 EUR/USD. You have just bought 100,000 Euros and sold the equivalent amount in dollars.

Therefore you can say currency trading involves simultaneously buying and selling. Going long in currency trading means having bought a currency pair! When you are long, you are looking for the prices to go higher. You want to sell at a higher price from that where you bought. It will make you a profit. If you are long and the price goes down, you will make a capital loss.

In currency trading, going short means selling a currency pair! In other words, you have sold the currency pair, meaning you have sold the base currency and bought the counter or secondary currency. You go short in anticipation of the price going further down when you anticipate the price of a currency pair going down. This will make you a profit later when you exit your position by going long. Unlike stock trading where you had to observe the up tick rule before you could go short. In currency trading there is no such rule. In currency trading going short is as common as going long.

If you have an open position and you want to close it, its called squaring up. If you are short, you need to buy to square up. If you are long, you need to sell to go flat. Selling high and buying low is the standard currency trading strategy. Having no position in the market is known as being square or flat.

Profit and Loss is how traders measure success and failure. A clear understanding of how P&L works is especially critical to online margin trading. When you open an online currency trading account, you will need to pony up cash as collateral to support the margin requirements established by your broker.

Profit and Loss calculations are pretty straight forward and are based on position size and the number of pips you make or lose. A pip is the smallest increment of price fluctuation in currency pairs. Pips are also referred to as points. Most of the currency pairs are quoted up to four decimal places. Suppose EUR/USD quote is 1.2853. If the price moves from 1.2853 to 1.2873, it has gone up by 20 pips. Pip is the increase or decrease in the fourth decimal digit.